French
crusadeAll actors of employee share ownership in France met
for their "Grand Prix" on 15 December in Paris.
They all agreed to launch a new "crusade" for
employee share ownership in France. Several governments
in the European Union chose for higher fiscal incentives,
considering employee share ownership as an investment for
the future and a key for recovering from the European crisis.
So did the UK and Austria recently. The example is also
coming from the USA, with employee ownership being one of
the themes of the presidential election campaign. France
should get back to the same way.

Formidable engine
Assets held by the employee owners in Europe were never
so high: 370 billion Euro and more than 3% of the capital
of all large European companies in 2015. This is more than
45,000 € per person (more than 25,000 € if executive directors
are excluded). Thus, even through the European crisis, employee
share ownership is a formidable engine to share in results
and growth, - assets per person have more than doubled since
2009. This is the first indication from the next "Economic
Survey of Employee Share Ownership in European Countries"
to be published in March 2016. More
information

Press review
We have a selection of 29 remarkable articles in 8 countries
in December 2015: France, Germany, India, Italy, South Korea,
Spain, UK, USA.France: The "Grand Prix" of employee share
ownership was celebrated on December 15. New employee share
plans for Amundi, Worldline, Spie, Vallourec, Veolia, Technip.
Chèque Déjeuner and SNA are two major workers' cooperatives
in France.Germany: Difficult situation for employee owners
of Der Spiegel. New calls for policy support to employee
share ownership in Germany.India: Tax exemptions proposed on stock options given
to employees by startups and on capital gains made from
investing in new ventures.Italy: Bad situation for employee shareholders in
Banca Etruria.South Korea: New employee share plan for Hotel Lotte.Spain: Much awaited from the new law on employee-owned
and participative companies.UK: Woollard & Henry and Quintessa are two prominent
employee-owned companies.USA: The Rise of the Worker-Owned Business.